Hello, Welcome to this month’s Q&A. I have to admit I am enjoying these. You all are asking some great, practical questions, which are getting me to think. Today’s question comes from Reed, who asks, How do you manage the stress of lulls between projects? I'm still in my first couple of years and I usually end up with enough work, but sometimes there are weeks at a time where things are very slow. I am glad to hear you have enough work most of the time. I remember when I began freelancing. It...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Hello, What is structure within an index and is it actually important? I’ve been thinking about this question over the last couple of weeks. There have been parallel discussions on the Indexer's Discussion Group (IDG) and Cindex Users email lists about AI and indexing, in response to Ben Vagle’s announcement of his latest AI indexing tool, Indexia. If you are not part of those email lists, you are welcome to join and go back to read. You may recall that Ben released a different AI indexing...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
Hello, How do you know when an index is finished? I think this is an important question, and also a question that is difficult to answer. “Good enough” can be subjective. Time and space constraints may be factors, as well as skill level or knowledge of indexing best practices. What an indexer might nitpick at may be perfectly acceptable to an author or publisher. And yet sooner or later, if under contract, the index needs to be submitted. There is a point at which the index needs to be...
2 months ago • 4 min read
Hello, Welcome back to the third edition of the monthly Q&A, on the last Tuesday of every month day I catch up. My apologies. This was on my to-do list for yesterday, along with a whole lot of other things, and I clearly did not get through everything on my to-do list. Today’s question comes from Kimberly: I've been giving each heading a subheading right from the start, with the idea that it might be easier to delete unneeded ones than to go back and figure out what they should all be. Do you...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Hello, When talking with newer indexers and people considering a career in indexing, I often get the question, “But when am I ready to begin freelancing?” Which is a very good question. Especially working alone, as freelancers tend to do, it can be tough to gauge our own skills. I often feel like responding, “You’re probably ready right now. Go for it.” And maybe they are ready, and maybe they are not. I’d need to learn more about their experience and see some of their work to have a better...
3 months ago • 2 min read
Hello, Fall is off to a roaring start for me. September was busy. October is so far a little slower, which is good as I am still catching up on projects I didn’t complete in September. And November and December are shaping up to also be full. With a full schedule also comes scheduling challenges. Part of this is on my end, if I underestimate how long an index will take to write or if something else comes up that sets me back. Running late on one project can snowball into the next, and before...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Hello, To all of you Canadians, in particular, a blessed National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day, remembering all those who attended Indian residential schools, especially those who died. This morning my wife and I attended the opening ceremony at Fort Edmonton Park. An older Indigenous man was angry and shouting prior to the ceremony, though I wasn’t close enough to hear what about. As part of her opening prayer, the presiding Elder acknowledged this man and...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Hello, As you’ve probably noticed, AI is still around, being pushed and integrated into almost everything. I find it interesting talking to friends and colleagues about whether and how they use AI. There are a few instances where it seems genuinely useful, but more often than not it still seems like a waste of time, designed by people who don’t actually understand the work that people do. I’ve written before about AI, here in 2023 and again in 2024. I’ve been thinking for a few months about...
4 months ago • 8 min read
Hello, I’ve gotten a few questions recently about increasing speed while indexing, including last week’s Q&A about subheadings. And while these are good questions and we can certainly discuss specific ways to increase speed, I think it is also important to keep in mind the foundations of speed, which I learned twenty years ago while learning how to plant trees. Tree planting, if you are unfamiliar, is seasonal work in which crews of mostly young people replant forests after the loggers have...
4 months ago • 5 min read